A conventional humidor may be any kind of box or room with constant humidity that is used for storing and taking good care of the humidity of cigars, cigarettes, pipe tobacco, or tobacco within an enclosure of the humidor. For private use, small wooden boxes for holding a few dozen cigars are very common, while some cigar shops may have a walk-in humidor. Humidors can also be used for maintaining other goods to have consistent and desired humidity level. Many humidors use hygrometers therein to monitor their humidity levels, respectively.
Commercially made humidor cases are typically made of wood, although other materials, like acrylic glass and metal, are not uncommon. Carbon fibre, silicon carbide, and polyethylene have also been used. Disregarding the aesthetic qualities, the casing's primary purpose is to protect the interior thereof and create a closed environment, so any durable and airtight material can be used. Typically, the interior of a conventional humidor case is overlaid with a veneer of Spanish cedar, which possesses the following desirable characteristics for cigar storage:
It holds more moisture than most woods, so it helps maintain humidity of the environment inside the humidor case;
It is not prone to “warping” or “cupping” in high humidity;
It imparts its aroma to cigars; For the same reason, some cigars are wrapped in Spanish-cedar sheets before they are sold; and
It can repel tobacco beetles, pinhead-sized pests which can ruin entire stocks of cigars by eating the tobacco and laying eggs, causing further infestation. They can also be discouraged by ensuring the temperature inside the humidor not getting hotter than 20° C. (68° F.). The beetle eggs usually only hatch at around 25 C (77 F), although there are also instances where they will hatch at cooler temperatures if the humidity is too high.
In general, Humidors are typically commercially produced, though most walk-ins are custom built and some humidors are homemade. They range considerably in material, size and complexity. Capacity of the Humidor is usually determined by deducting the space required for the humidification element and some extra room between the humidification element and the cigars. It can also be calculated online for the most popular cigar formats.
In order to maintain the humidity of the tobacco or cigars to a favorable and desirable level, the tobacco and cigars are usually placed in an enclosure such as a humidor which has an interior constructed of wood along with some form of humidifier for the purpose of providing protection to the tobacco and cigars by creating an environment within the enclosure of the humidor which promotes and maintains the relative humidity inside the humidor to a certain level usually within 65% to 75% relative humidity. This process may take a long time and usually requires a User's involvement through periodically opening the enclosure for checking whether or not the relative humidity level inside the humidor is maintained to a desirable level.
As to the humidity inside the conventional humidor, low relative humidity will inevitably cause many problems including causing the tobacco becoming brittle and dehydrated as well as having tears on cigar wrappers, which eventually increases stiffness of the tobacco and in turn causes the tobacco losing its original flavor due to the absence of moisture and natural oils within the tobacco that are produced when properly humidified. Conventionally, in order to effectively overcome the problems mentioned above, humidifiers currently installed in ordinary humidors include a water-absorbing pad along with a fixed electric fan that provides airflow over the water-absorbing pad to increase the humidity inside the humidor over a period of time. Other types of humidifiers may include only a moistened pad, sponge or water beads situated inside the humidor until all moisture within the humidifier is depleted via natural evaporation. A third form of humidification requires a package of premixed water and salt formula placed inside the enclosure of the humidor that helps to regulate the relative humidity inside the enclosure and is replaced once the content of the package is dried out.
In view of the above, it should be apparent and obvious that the conventional humidifying methods are unable and fail to create an optimal environment for the contents stored inside the humidor due to various reasons such as the relatively low flow rate provided therein for dispersing the humid air into the enclosure of the humidor, which takes a long period of time to increase the relative humidity of the air in the internal environment of the humidor to reach a desirable level because the humidity being created by these types of conventional humidifiers are quickly absorbed by the naturally absorbent tobacco as well as the wooden materials used in the interior construction of the humidor faster than conventional humidifiers can introduce new moist air into the enclosure of the humidor. Therefore, although the conventional humidifiers currently existing in the market have achieved considerable popularity and commercial success, there has been a continuous need to improve on the capabilities offered by these conventional humidifiers.
Accordingly, a need arose to design a whole new humidifier (hereinafter referred to as “humidification apparatus”) for being used in a humidor so that, when a User places the cigars, cigarettes, pipe tobacco, tobacco or other goods within an enclosure of the humidor, the configurations and mechanism of the humidification apparatus not only will effectively improve the humidity introduction rate thereof, but also will avoid the User from getting involved in the maintenance of the humidity inside the enclosure of the humidor, as well as effectively reducing the amount of moving parts of the apparatus to zero, and in turn effectively reducing the amount of parts required in manufacturing, assembling, and using the apparatus, thereby allowing the apparatus to be in a preferred smaller package capable of being conveniently placed in almost any size humidor and continuously maintain the relative humidity inside the said enclosure to a desirable level.